Lots of fragmented threads about EVO’s and going fast but not really one good central location.. at least that I know of. If there have been threads in the past and you have saved links please share.

There’s a lot of silly hype promoted by magazines, myth and greed (goofy bolt on parts..). I wanted a thread that highlights tricks for Evo’s where the rubber meets the road. I’m not talking about guys sitting around with printer sheets claiming the Dyno shows this or that. I’m talking real performance. Like how many of you guys have been to the track? Your experiances? How many of you are into 11 or 10 second ET’s? There seems to be a big hole with Evo’s now. I remember a time when all the performance articles and everything was about Evo Evo Evo. And from the shovel world, I hated it. Now that I own an Evo, it’s like nobody cares about them anymore and everything’s about having multi cam shafts or M8 this M8 that. What really hit my funny bone is the guys are spending obnoxious money going big in.ł to make the same power as shovels and Evo’s.. meaning, 100 inch 12:1 shovel makes the same power as 100 inch 12:1 Evo or 100 inch 12:1 twin cam. I don’t really feel any need to buy the latest and greatest… seems it’s a parallel move, only difference is now if you pay more, you can get it from Harley instead of building it your self or, for half of that buying a big inch crate motor and blueprinting it. Frame of reference my 93” Shovel ran 11:87 @ 112mph on pump gas, 130 tire, no shift assist, stock cases and heads. Made 105 peak on a dyno with 115 ft lbs. but averaged from 2800 to 5800 is over 100 ft lbs.. 3 gears through the quarter. If I built an Evo I’m confident it would be comparable, but I’d rather learn from all of you than struggle with it.

Anyway, lots of pics on this forum of V&H Staggered duals (2 into 2) with tiny hidden crossovers, I have a pair on my bike, I’d like to know the truth about them with typical stage 2? (At present) I don’t mean “seat of pants” or dyno sheets.. been there done that, I’d like to hear about them at the track compared to the forum darling solution of 2 into 1. I know in the shovel world that was crap, paper can say whatever in wants on a dyno as you lose 2 tenths on the track over it… same as state of tune for that matter. I waisted an entire season with a blunder header, 50 steps backward and now I simply hate 2 into 1… Is that a hemi thing, is it different with an evo? Lots of guys at the track used drag pipes. Lots used 2 into 1, but the fast guys were drags.

Nobody talks about weight with these pigs… my softail weighs 630… I wouldn’t even date her, If I didn’t own it. Any suggestions on losing weight? Rims, battery, swing arm..? I’d love to get that to 550 or so. So who’s got real world experience? Who can separate the hype from reality?

 

Everyone has different goals on what they want to achieve, but here's a good site that you can start your research: http://nightrider.com/biketech/

 

yep Nightrider been around a while. Some good info. Kinda outdated for Shovels but probably more accurate with newer engines.

 

My ‘97 was good for 12.3 @ 106, on street tires, no burn out, prepped track
Decently up graded, 10:25:1 Hillside heads, Super E, W6 cam, D&D exhaust 2n1
About 90 hp
completely content riding to strip and riding home, Hot laps would get to the clutches if hot lapped.

Won the Evo class on 1/10 mile no prep, a couple years ago at street bike drags, bike only had what it needed to go forward, no bags or windshields.

 

So what do you want.. Building the original motor or doing a stroker..? Where do you want you power? Sounds like you want 4000 up power.. Be a little specific and will start there.. Including drive train requirements, primary and secondary..

 

already stated...Nightrider site has a wealth of knowledge. site is rough to say the least, but the info is there. I recently built a 10.5:1 compression Evo with an Andrews EV27 cam for my De-Geezer'd Glide. Bike moves much better than most, based on the math, it should be somewhere 80-90 whp...but I don't care to dyno it.

You know by now that compression is your friend and timing can make it or break it. Here are some links that i found useful when researching what cam / comp ratio to go with on a stock bottom end.

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/toc.htm

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/hdbuildstage3_95.htm

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/hplist_evo80.htm

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/h...vo_bigones.htm

https://thedynoguy.com/compression-calculator - this one and the next link work together very well.

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/HDMasterCamSpecs.pdf

http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/HP2.html - basic principles stuff

- full VERY detailed disassembly / reassembly of an EVO

https://www.motoparts.fi/pages/techn...ley_Tuning.pdf - good frame of reference for part combos and tested results.

 

@98hotrodfatboy Good questions. Without getting into life or priorities, even with other bikes, I’ll map it this way.
Theprevious owner had “something” done. The bike has 6K original miles and sat 20+ years, so details are few. He says he had the “Branch kit” done by his chopper shop.. I can tell you this Chopper shop screwed a lot of crap up. I don’t know what cam, pistons, head work or springs are in there right now. The bottom fins are shaved off the cylinders. That’s Clue 1, there is something to what he says. Cold cranking compression is about 190, that’s Clue 2 that there is some compression. Clue 3 is it comes into some power around 3500+. It’s geared stock and there isn't enough down low. So there is a performance cam, I suspect too much duration and not enough lift for the motors swept volume. Typical of a lazy builder…

My immediate plan is to see full potential out of what’s here first and I have yet to figure out the harsh cutting out at the top of each gear forcing me to short shift. If I ride through the cutting out, it just starts to come alive. It has some serious rust in the tank that has to be addressed before more motor work. I’ve rebuilt the carb twice and added an inline fuel filter due to sediment build up in the float due to the rust… the pingel fuel valve is shot. I have a new one, but will wait to install after lining the tanks. So fuel was the obvious first thought behind the cutting out. But it’s not the issue. I replaced and indexed the plugs, gapped to 43 thou. Replaced coil and wires… problem is still there. There is defiantly some electrical problems that are intermittent and spooky. This “chopper shop” did something to the turn signals too, they only work intermittent when you press the turn signal button.. lots of gremlins. I cleaned all ignition switch contacts and headlight wiring… but once in a while I lose all electrical except ignition while going down the road. (Checked all battery terminals and grounds, replaced battery) if I go back to fuel and blame it on jetting or pipes… I’ve gone from 28 all the way to 31 and the cutting out is the same. It needs a 29.5 though, just by where the mix screw winds up after tuning. The main jet I’ve gone from 70 to 78 and nothing changes. I’ve checked and adjusted the float, that’s not it.. so It came with these obnoxious megaphone pipes and was tuned way way lean. Those pipes were just wide open. I tried thumbscrews… no difference. Then I tried a new set of staggered Python 1 3/4 pipes with the tiny hidden crossover pipe… problem is still there (of course re jetted and tuned with every exhaust change) I pulled the baffles out, problem the same. Put in thumb screws, problem the same… kinda narrowed down to pulling out the screaming chicken ignition and going with a Dyna S. I also swapped a known G on there just to see if my problem went away… no dice.

Anyway I’d like to fix it for now just so I can ride. In the next few months I’ll order an unassembled ElBruto 127, blue print it and install that. But I just can’t jump right ahead right now due to time. I’m in the middle of a kitchen remodel, building a shed, putting the Shovel back together and a Mustang restoration not to mention owning a small company that I run… so I just want my few sanity hours I can ride to be enjoyed. Once the Kitchen and Shovel are done, I’ll do the new motor. I don’t think I want to stroke the stock 90 cases. Years ago I stroked a guys Evo 93 to 88” at 12:1 and it lasted months before blowing the cases apart. I’ve blue printed and tweaked a 113 ElBruto and a 120 and they came out perfect. So I think I’m money ahead to do a 127 instead of using the stock motor.

So there’s the map, or plan. My question here is are these current pipes known to be decent on a medium compression 80” EVo and is there anything I can start doing about weight? This is the heaviest bike I’ve ever owned… and it feels like I’m riding an Anvil.

 

The cutting out seems to be the transition spot from the low to high speed side of the carb, but you've seemingly addressed that by going tothe "G" which required manifold swaps and new gaskets to the heads I assume. Gaskets were my next thought before reading about the "G" swap.

My 113" S&S has a .640 cam in it and the power comes on about 32-3500 revs and has a Thunderjet kit in it for extra fuel. Ran great, just no mileage cruising and sucked at higher altitude.
Swapped that for a 51mm cv carb and still ran excellent and better (3mpg) mileage running around 75 two up on an Ultra Classic. V&H ProPipe on it with both carbs.
Currently running a 96" homebuilt on S&S parts with a Woods cam with .631 lift and relatively short duration. Lots of fun to ride still. SuperTrapp on it currently.

Griz

 

Evo performance?? last weekend me and my bros went to Temple Tx to Little River drag way, to watch our buddies Jeff on is evo based 800 hp top fuel drag bike, he has a new 1000 hp engine he is building for it now and Curly on his nitro iron head, really old cool track lots of old drag bikes shovels etc, my buddy Jeff's bike is the Southern Harley Davidson, pictured at the very beginning and thru out the video, he usually wins the event but had an off weekend.

 

Working right now I'll get back to you later..